Marketing Message | November’s Top Mostly-About-Marketing Must-Reads

This November, we’re turning the focus to how you present your company to your customers. Do you choose to make your brand about them? Do you listen to their feedback? Do you try to make a connection that matters to them? Check out these five articles to make your company’s message meaningful and start putting your customers first.

It doesn’t matter how different you are, if you use the same words as everybody else, you’re the same. That’s why calling yourself an “innovator,” a “visionary,” or an “expert” won’t cut it when it comes to describing your role. Your customer won’t give a flip about titles if the words don’t tell them what they need to know. That’s why you should read this article—so you can learn how to ditch shortcut words and clearly communicate the uniqueness of what you do.

People are trusting less and less in advertising. When you toot your own horn, they see right through it. Instead of taking your word for how much your company can help them, they turn to what they feel are less-biased opinions—reviews and mentions by people who have worked with your company before. That’s where brand engagement, the emotion that your brand creates, comes in. Read this article to learn how to change your tactics from using a hard sell to harnessing an emotional connection to your brand.

Creating connections with your customers and interactions with your brand takes way more than capitalizing on something relevant. It’s all about timing and understanding what your customer cares about. The examples in this article will help you understand when relevant and timely collide, so you can make messages that matter.

When it comes to how you present yourself as a company, customers are the absolute best resources for gaining insight into how you can up your game. Negative feedback is never fun, but customers know a lot about the one thing you should care about—their own problems and pain points. When they have something to say to you, make sure you’re listening. Better yet, read this article for ways to ask them for their insight and start looking for ways to improve.

Any company worth its salt knows that focusing on the customer is the true key to success. But the momentous mindset switch from “what do I get out of this?” to “what could they get out of this?” requires effort and purposeful change. Read this article for ways to change your company’s perspective to be more customer-centric, and truly put your target audience first.

Share your thoughts about company messages in the comments below, or tweet us @nectafy. Let’s get a conversation going!